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Build-up of errors thwarts green homes
A series of minor construction errors are commonly to blame for poorly performing green homes, new research led by sustainability consultancy Bioregional has found.
The organisation, together with partners including housing association A2 Dominion, studied a low-carbon development for four years to try to understand why energy efficiency measures failed to perform as expected.
This £1.3m, government-backed programme has led to the launch of a ‘building energy performance improvement’ toolkit for developers, available from Bioregional.
Researchers said modern housing should waste far less heat than older homes but routinely failed to reach expected energy saving performance because insulation and air tightness were compromised during construction.
The study concluded this arose from a collection of minor problems scattered throughout the construction process and culminated in compromising energy performances.
Initial tests showed that using the toolkit to highlight these problems resulted in a 40% improvement in average air tightness between the first and second phases of construction.
Sue Riddlestone, chief executive of Bioregional, said: “After four years of in-depth research, we can now offer the housebuilding industry a service that really works to tackle a serious and long-standing problem – the energy performance gap.
“This is an issue which harms the industry’s reputation, contributes significantly to carbon emissions and costs occupants billions of pounds in lost energy savings.”
